Nancy Palmer is a third generation Washingtonian; she grew up in Chevy Chase and attended National Cathedral School. She began working at WRC-TV as an intern when she was 16 years old and went on to work at NBC News after graduating Boston University. She got a graduate degree in journalism degree at American University and wrote for Washington Journalism Review (now American Journalism Review) for many years.

She met her husband, John Palmer, at NBC News and they lived in New York for 10 years while John was news anchor on the Today Show. While in New York she began work on a Ph.D. in film study at Yale, when she and her husband returned to Washington in 1992 with their three daughters she continued studying screenwriting at Georgetown University. She has written 8 screenplays, several have placed in national film festivals and one was optioned in Hollywood.

She has been writing for The Washingtonian for several years, including a number of profiles and a piece about legacies and college admissions, as well as contributing to several cover stories.